31/31 Day X: Detonation

Everything you did before this point in time has been leading to this; a battle between yourself and your enemy, who has been one step ahead of you the entire time. Now, with his/her defenses weakened, it's time for you to take them on.

Final boss fights are something of an oddity in video games; they can be a very simple task, only requiring you to complete one simple task, or they can have multiple stages/forms, each more complex than the last. Regardless of their complexity, final boss fights are very important to a game, as they are(usually) the last bit of gameplay you experience, and it should have a lasting effect upon you; the game was building up to this point.

Because I'm in a rush today, instead of giving a deep analysis of the intricacies of what makes a great final boss(which I might do tomorrow), I instead intend to highlight some of my favorite boss fights, as well as some of the ones I find...frustrating.

Yes, I know, some are better than others-but instead of only highlighting one, I thought I'd just give an overall tribute to the series-each finishing with some climactic battle between Link and some other evil, whether if be Ganondorf, Bellum, or Vaati. In any case, each of them may be similar in design, but they all have their intricacies that separate them from the others. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Twilight Princess'...for one reason.

Fallout 3

What makes Fallout 3's final boss so unique is the possibilities for the fight itself-you can convince the enemy to surrender, kill himself, or you can just do the job yourself. Although the former two aren't really a "boss" per se, it's still a confrontation, which could make him considered a "boss". The radically different options for dealing with him make this a great one in my book. Plus, the lead up part was the running with Liberty Prime...that helped.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time

Now, when I say final boss, I mean the true, final antagonist: Darkrai. I loved this game a lot, and beat it a couple times, but I've only managed to deal with Darkrai once. What makes this boss battle so memorable though, to me, is the build up to it; Darkrai was the one who caused all of the pain and loss, who caused the events that turned you into a Pokemon and the emergence of Primal Dialga. Also, his dungeon was really hard, so it was satisfying to even get to him, let alone beat him.

The Bad

Shadow of the Colossus

I know that this is a cult classic game, and a lot of people really did like it...but I didn't fall into that camp. I found the entire game to be very frustrating, with only a couple of the bosses feeling good in design(or good enough to not having me contemplating to turn off the PS2). I still have not completed the 16th Colossi's fight, because of how much a chore it is. There's such a small window for some very critical jumps during the fight that make it almost impossible. Plus, his lasers that come at you when you're running on the field up to him...well, I hate that part. A lot.

Assassin's Creed III

The final boss(the killing of Charles Lee), consisted of chasing him through Boston, and then stabbing him in a bar. It doesn't get much worse than that in my book, considering how absurd the objectives were for the chase(I must have restarted 25 times). Only the large amount of content in the game kept me coming back after this point.

So yeah, those are some boss fights I can think of in recent memory that have either left me in a deep feeling of satisfaction, or wanting to break the controller in half. Here's some final boss music to suit the mood, from a recent game's final boss that I did like.